It’s been a busy month and I’ve taken quite a few photos since the Kansas City Great Balloon Glow.
For example, I was playing a round of disc golf with Cory at Prairie Center Park and I saw this tree. It was backlit by the sun and one of the Nicolesy 52 Photo Challenge themes that I had missed was “Backlight” (week 30). I really liked the orange and red colors, even though they’re probably an indication of some sort of disease or drought or something.
The theme for week 32 was “dominant color”. Lisa had added colored textures to paper, using paints and different things to spread the paint around. One of the textured, painted papers was colored with orange paint. I grabbed that one and placed my Tog’l block clown guy in front of it to get this image:
On another day that week, I was walking through the neighborhood when I noticed this fox waiting patiently for me in front of all that dominant green color. I didn’t have a long zoom lens with me, so I couldn’t get a real closeup of him, but I was able to get a bunch of greenery!
“Fill the Frame” was the theme for week 33. To me, that suggests macro photography. So I setup my D7100 with my Sigma 105mm macro lens and shot the Chinese coin that I purchased in Chinatown in San Francisco a few years ago. There’s nothing really special about this particular coin that I am aware of, I just like the fact that it has a cool dragon image on it.
A technique that I have been using for many years for getting a proper exposure for my sunrise, sunset and other images that include the sky where the sky is the main subject is to use the camera’s spot meter, instead of matrix or center-weighted metering. I use it often enough that I have programmed a button on the front of my camera to immediately switch from matrix metering to spot metering. After I have adjusted the aperture and shutter speed to get the proper exposure for the sky or whatever part of the image I’m adjusting for, I then release the button and re-frame my shot. The theme for week 34 was “Spot Metering”, so I was only too happy to grab another shot of a Kansas City sunrise using this technique. A lot of the images I captured during the Kansas City Great Balloon Glow were also metered using spot metering.
For week 35, the theme was, “Handheld Long Exposure”. It’s similar to the “Motion Blur” theme from week 4, but demands that the camera be handheld and not on a tripod or other stationary supporting device. I was in Las Vegas during week 35 and while walking with my Grandson on his way to school, I stopped to get this shot of a car driving past. I had to set the ISO on my D750 to the lowest setting (50) and close the aperture down to f/16 in order to have a shutter speed of only 1/30th of a second without over-exposing the image. I then stood as still as I could and waited for a car to drive by.
I was still in Las Vegas when the theme for week 36 was announced. The theme was “S Curve”. I was on a walk with my son and his family when I noticed this tree with a nice “S Curve” trunk.
I got back to Kansas during week 36 and happened to go outside behind our house when I noticed squirrels running along the top of the fence. It was just as the sun was rising, so I figured that would be a good time to get setup for some squirrel shots. That evening, I put my Tamron 150-600mm lens on my D750, set it on a gimbal head on my tripod in anticipation of shooting some squirrels the next morning. I wasn’t disappointed. The squirrels were pretty active and this one took the time to stop and pose for me with her tail in a nice “S Curve”.
While I was sitting there waiting for the squirrels, I noticed that the lacing in the chair I was sitting in had a nice “S Curve”, so I grabbed a shot of that, too.
I’ve shot through a “Lensball” a lot, so for week 37’s theme of “Shoot Through”, I wanted to try something different. I have a bottle cutter and thought that cutting the bottom off of a bottle and shooting through the top of the bottle might be a good thing to try. So that’s what I did. In the evening, I grabbed an empty vinegar bottle, cut the bottom off and sanded the edges down just enough so that I wouldn’t accidentally cut myself with it. My plan was to take a sunrise shot the next morning.
When I woke up, I grabbed the bottle, my camera, the new collapsible stool that I had just bought and went outside to sit down and wait for the sunrise. With camera and bottle in hand, I unfolded the collapsible stool, set it on the driveway and proceeded to sit down to wait. The collapsible stool broke, collapsed and I tumbled to the ground. Doh! Fortunately, the camera and bottle were undamaged during this gravitational catastrophe.
Later, I was able to get a full refund for the collapsed collapsible stool.
After picking myself up, but before requesting a refund, I was able to get this image:
I also tested out the “Shoot Through” technique with the bottomless bottle by taking a photo of the “Ministry of Silly Walks” clock in my office that Cory gave me:
Lisa was preparing boxes with all sorts of miniature items to help Ellie learn the letter sounds, and she was conveniently doing this during the “Shoot Through” week. One of the items she had purchased was a miniature kaleidoscope, so I took a few shots through that, as well:
And since halloween is just around the corner, I bought a pumpkin and had Kyson help me carve it with the intent of taking a picture of him through the jack-o-lantern:
